MUMBAI: Network18, promoter of news brands CNN-IBN and IBN7, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with St Stephen’s College, which will further the aim of educational inclusivity. As part of this initiative, Stephen’s College will offer a certificate course in Citizenship & Cultural Richness.

Under the course, St Stephen’s College will hold weekly classes conducted by its regular faculty and alumni including top serving and retired judges, bureaucrats and renowned academicians.

The lecture content will be hosted across the digital and social media platforms of Network18 (ibnlive.com & ibnkhabar.com) and St Stephen’s College.

While inaugurating the course, Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B Lokur, said, “This course is ready to reach out to people to make them better citizens and to help the society.”

St Stephen’s College principal Valson Thampu feels the very purpose of the course is to enable students and citizens to live a rich life and to become responsible citizens. “I am delighted that Network 18, particularly CNN-IBN has gladly come forward to support this initiative, which is a signal of the robustness of media,” said Thampu.  

Network18 president - news Umesh Upadhyay added, “We will help in every way possible to promote this course and make this an initiative that will make our youth into responsible citizens, who contribute to the growth of this country. We are grateful to St Stephen’s for partnering us on this mission to help make media more responsible and conscientious.”

CNN-IBN and IBN7 will align their Citizen Journalist show with the course offered under the joint initiative.  The idea is to encourage the citizens enrolled in the course to become citizen journalists and highlight issues and problems around them as faced by the common man.